Just then the hail of darts began to slow and within a few moments came to a complete stop. “They are far from home,” said Thaddeus with a hopeful smile. “Perhaps they did not bring a particularly large supply of darts.”
“It is a possibility,” said Odellius and grinned back. “Keep those shields up lads, it might be a trap, but I think we can hold out until morning unless they come at us.”
Over the next hour an occasional dart hissed through the air but there were no more casualties and the warriors rotated the shield men and managed a few moment of fitful sleep as they waited for the dawn and their deaths.
“It’s getting lighter,” said Thaddeus and nudged Odellius whose snores rang out into the early hours of the morning. The rotund mason opened his eyes instantly, looked around to take in the slow lightening of the sky, and nodded his head.
“Are they up yet?” he said with a motion of his hand to the surrounding group of reptiles.
Thaddeus nodded, “I’d guess about a five hundred of them at least, they’ve been yelling at us, apparently some of them know our language. Things about Black Dale and what they’ll do to our wives after they kill us, the normal things.”
Odellius smiled. “Let’s hope they try and make good on that; the First Rider and our men will run them down easily in this open terrain,” he said and suddenly stood up. “Form up men, they’ll be coming for us in a few minutes.
The able knights stood up and arranged themselves in a circle around those too wounded to stand and, as daylight began to banish the darkness, the forms of their foes slowly became clear. Thaddeus’s guess appeared to be about correct as the reptile men had them ringed in on all four sides with about a hundred or so in each group. The leader of the enemy was a tall man who wore a spectacular uniform decorated with many bone symbols. Odellius shook his head, “With our mounts they’d run before us like children,” he said.
Thaddues looked at Odellius, his eyes shining brightly. “It’s too bad men on their civilian twelve month aren’t allowed either horse or lance; still, death against an overwhelming force isn’t the worst way for a knight to die, now is it?”
“Balls on,” said Odellius and gave the younger knight a clap on his shoulder so hard he staggered forward a step. “By the Black Horse, I’ll take them lizards on with a wooden practice sword and five beers in my belly.”
“They’re getting ready to come down on us,” said Thaddeus looking up at the gathered reptile men and listening to their strange sibilant language as they shouted orders to one another. “We’ll not hold up to even a single charge,” said the knight with a smile, “but I’ll go down with one of them at least,” he finished and pulled out his sword. “For Elekargul!” he shouted and the men shouted it as well, but then a horn sounded and the shout suddenly echoed tenfold in the distance.
“By the Black Horse,” said Odellius. “If that’s not the First Rider and a company of men then I’m a tea totaling brewer boy in his mother’s petticoats!”
The reptile men directly to their right spun almost to the man to look behind them, and all four groups began to signal frantically and moved to unify their formation. The sound of thunderous hooves came next and then, from a small dip in the hills, a hundred heavily armed horsemen, their plate mail glinting in the orange glow of the morning sun, charged forward, a white banner with four black horseshoes carried by the lead rider.
The horses seemed to gallop at the same speed and maintained a perfect line as they moved with deceptive swiftness towards the reptile men who hurriedly tried to form a wall. A loud cry came from the horsemen and all one hundred lances dipped at the same moment to create a terrible phalanx of death. The two groups of reptile men on either side of the trapped knights raced towards the unit closest to the horsemen while the creatures across simply tried to cut through Odellius and his men.
“Face me,” cried Odellius, turning his back to the reptiles and facing the soldiers at his command who turned to look at the massive warrior. “Line up, three deep, rows of six,” he calmly ordered and they obeyed in precise fashion getting into place just as the hundred or so reptiles hit their wall. The creatures that struck the center of the wall stopped in their tracks while those on either side flowed around and jabbed with their swords at the massed center.
From behind this little battle, the sound of thunder rolled over the battlefield and a hundred lances swept through the reptile lines like a scythe through a field of wheat. As Odellius tried to bellow orders the horsemen flew past him, their mounts heavily armored, and the men on their backs silent.
A short man with the features of a hobgoblin that included a square head with black hair and black eyes motioned with his hand; fifty of the riders suddenly swung their horses around in perfection unison, and lowered their lances for another charge. The leader made another move with his hand and all fifty of the remaining knights dropped their bloody lances, dismounted, and pulled out thick swords like a drill team on the parade field. “By the lance, by the sword, by the horse, to me knights of Elekargul, to the First Rider!”
The isolated soldiers dashed across the field and found positions with the fifty heavily armed soldiers like gears that turned on a mill, and Odellius found himself next to the squat man who gave the orders. Odellius stood almost a foot taller than the man although their bodies were nearly the same thickness and the little man’s legs were even stouter, like trunks of some great tree.
“I expected you’d find a way to weasel out of your twelve month of masonry,” he said to Odellius, although he kept his eyes on the reptiles that tried to reform with at least half their number dead or badly wounded. “Swords… up!” and sixty some odd blades rose into fighting position while shields locked.
“It’s nice to see you as well, Vipsanius,” said Odellius.
“At the double!” shouted the squat man and men started toward the few reptiles that managed to band together after the second sweep from the cavalry. The big leader of the group, a flagman at his side, shouted orders but their lines remained jagged and many of their foe looked at the horses, who swept around for another charge rather than at the swordsmen who rapidly approached. “Address me as First Rider if you please,” said the short man. “Keep in line there, Surantius,” he shouted as a young knight with an open hand symbol between his four horseshoes surged half a stride ahead. “Make a note, Odellius,” he continued, “how many of them watch the horses and how many watch us.”
“Yes, First Rider,” said Odellius as they moved to within ten yards of their massed foes. Some of the enemy noticed the foot soldiers, although at least half, if not more, watched the horsemen now completely wheeled and ready to charge forward again as they lowered their steel lances to chest height.
The horses moved aside at the last second and rolled past like a river split around some massive stone, but their movement captured the attention of most of the reptiles in the square and the First Rider’s group hit them a moment later at a full run. What few of the enemy put up a fight were quickly dispatched as their hide armor proved no match for the field plate of the knights and within a moment Odellius and the First Rider approached the heart of the enemy unit where the great captain and his personal guard awaited.
“A weak choice of armor,” said Vipsanius and thrust his blade under the arm of a reptile whose own overhand smash he easily deflected with a steel shield.
“They are from the swamps, unused to open plain fighting,” said Odellius and smashed a second of the beasts in the face with his own shield and then, as the creature reeled, chopped its left leg off at the knee.
“Now, then, that one seems better equipped,” said the First Rider, planting his steel tipped riding boot into the face of a downed reptile and crushing his mouth, as he pointed to the leader. “Shall we test his steel?”